For 10 weeks this summer, California Southern Baptist churches will join hands and hearts to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of migrant workers and residents of impoverished California communities, primarily in the San Joaquin Valley.

During the summer, 60 California Migrant Centers and/or communities will be ministered to through:

• distribution of food (including flour, corn meal, sugar, beans, rice and milk) to low income farm workers and families,
• distribution of clothing (including one pair of shoes, one pair of pants, two shirts and backpacks with school supplies) to children (ages 4-12),
• distribution of a backpack and school supplies to teens (ages 13-17),
• evangelistic events such as Vacation Bible School, and
• medical/dental screening using the CSBC Mobile Medical & Dental Clinics.

Medical/dental screening will be basic with referrals to medical/dental personnel; no procedures will be performed.  Each location will be staffed by professional medical and dental personnel.

A congressional study in 2005 revealed the Valley has a high poverty, low educational achievement and growing social needs.  It also suggests the Valley is the new Appalachia, but receives fewer per-capita federal dollars than other impoverished areas in the United States.

Further studies indicate the problem is worsening in the Valley and is occurring more and more frequently in the homes of the working poor.  The study revealed fewer than 5 percent of those receiving food are homeless, almost half the households served have at least one working adult, more than two-thirds had incomes below the federal poverty level, and 85 percent describe themselves as “food insecure,” meaning they don’t know where they’ll get their next meal.
 
In 2007, 1,109 volunteers from Southern Baptist churches and several other evangelical churches joined in serving more than 8,702 individuals. More than 3,000 bags of groceries were given to some 18,726 people. God moved as the Gospel was shared and 1,567 persons received Christ as Savior.

Persons/churches interested in volunteering to help with the project should contact the “cluster coordinator” for the area in which you want to serve. Click here to see the schedule.

Sources to fund the project include church contributions, corporate donations, the CSBC California Mission Offering, North American Mission Board Hunger Relief, individuals and in-kind gifts.

Project coordinators are asking each site contribute $5,000 to help with costs. To make a donation of any amount online, click here.  Donations also can be mailed to CSBC, 678 E. Shaw Ave., Fresno, CA 93710.  Donations should be designated for migrant ministries.  All donations are tax deductible.
 
For more information about the project, contact Oscar Sanchez, Migrant Ministries Field Specialist, California Southern Baptist Convention, by e-mail (click here) or (559) 930-3768 or Tom Stringfellow, pastor of First Baptist church of Beverly Hills, at pstrtom@sbcglobal.net or (310) 276-3978.